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Morse SMS

 No more thumb gymnastics.
  (+5)
(+5) 		  [vote for,
against]

I like the idea of texting without looking at the phone. It allows you to text and walk along the street without bumping into things for a start.

Morse SMS would be an entry system consisting of three big buttons mounted near the top of the phone, above the display where your thumb naturally falls.

The buttons would be:
key -- short press for a dot, long for a dash.
break -- short press to end a character, long press to delete a character, press without having entered any morse for a space.
symbol -- cycles through punctuation/shift, one short press for full stop/period, two to capitalise a letter, three for a comma etc. (because punctuation is a pain in morse).
The keypad would also stay active for entering numbers as these are also a pain in morse code.

As well as being able to text without looking at the phone (and do so without getting cramped thumbs), you would now have a damn fine excuse to learn morse code.

—st3f, Feb 05 2004

Morse Code... http://www.outfo.or..._code/alphanumeric/
...with punctuation. [st3f, Oct 04 2004, last modified Oct 05 2004]

Sending SMS for FREE using MORSE Sending_20SMS_20for...REE_20using_20MORSE
SMS messages can be sent FREE of charge, using morse code [www_TiF_ro, Sep 07 2005]

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       anything that helps +1   

       r we on rods's beer?
—po, Feb 05 2004
   

       -... ..- -.
..-. .-. --- --
-- .
—Freefall, Feb 05 2004
   

       ...and it's faster than keypad SMS, too.
—bristolz, Jun 03 2005
   

       Of course the obvious corollary is that the phone would vibrate or beep to read incoming messages back to you in morse code.   

       Perfect for when you can't read the message (driving, meetings etc).
—tobythepig, Aug 08 2005
   

       Oddly enough, the SMS alert tone on my mobile (and many others I suspect) is "SMS" in Morse! (...--...)
—coprocephalous, Aug 08 2005
   

       I'd like to see mobile morse code sets without the phone business, I rather fancy strapping a telegraph key to my arm and tapping away to me mates, of course bakelite earphones and that rather nice fabric covered cord as well connecting all the bits together, a couple of glowing valves sticking out of the top of my backpack...Ahh! heaven...
—Micky Dread, Aug 09 2005
   

       This is one of the most clever ideas the hb's ever had! You could text message while driving and it would bring back the venerated art of morse code!   

       You could also have what we ham radio dorks used to call a keyer which was two buttons or paddles you would alternately push, one played a very quck series of "dots" the other "dashes" at machine gun speed. With these units you could communicate much more quickly than with a key. You could have "keyer buttons" on either side of the phone and really crank.   

       Nerds like me would rule the airwaves once again!   

       Can I get a: -.-. --.- on this one?
—doctorremulac3, Aug 11 2005
   

       Oddly, i had a very similar idea only yesterday. I like it, and actually it could have been baked decades ago on portable telephones in days of yore.
—nineteenthly, Aug 11 2005
   


 

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